The Other Half Of The Coin
by southernslasher
Summary: A new sorcerer has made its way into Camelot's borders and threatens the kingdom and all it's people. Merlin must manage tracking down the sorcerer, hiding his secret of magic, and most importantly keeping Arthur safe. When Merlin and Arthur's relationship starts to shift, it threatens to bring down Merlin's juggling act.


Arthur opened his eyes slowly; he could feel the pain slowly fading. Everything was gradually coming into focus. He could see a figure running around the room gathering vials and then coming to Arthur and dripping some of the liquids on his wounds. Arthur winced in pain as the figure worked to cure him. The figure was by his side in seconds whispering "don't worry, your safe now… ill never let you out of my sight again" the last words drenched in guilt. Arthur could see who was speaking to him now. it was Merlin. Of coarse, whom else did he expect, Merlin was always the one fixing him up. Arthur tried to lift himself up, but regretted it immediately, the pain was blinding. He collapsed back down, staring to lose consciousness as he fell. He could barely hear Merlin when he said "relax, get some rest". After hesitating a moment, he nodded weakly and did as Merlin said; in a few seconds he was fast asleep…

When he finally woke his pain was virtually gone and felt well rested. He scanned the room only to find Merlin sitting in the corner reading a book, Merlin looked like he hadn't eaten in days. Arthur stood up from the bed and upon hearing the noise Merlin's head shot up. Merlin tossed the book aside and was by his friend in moments, helping him up. "ho..how do you feel?" Merlin asked worriedly. "Actually… pretty good! "Arthur said honestly surprised. Merlin body relaxed, the magic he had used worked. "You, on the other hand, look like you've died!" gesturing to Merlin. Merlin shrugged knowing he had completely neglected himself as soon as he dragged Arthur into his home. Arthur sighed, realizing Merlin probably _hadn't_ eaten since he arrived, he hated when Merlin did that. He planted his hand firmly on Merlin's shoulder, shook it slightly, and smiled "Come on, lets go get you some food." Merlin tried to protest, saying that he should do some tests just to make sure all was normal. In the end it was pointless, Arthur was stubborn and Merlin knew arguing with him would get him nowhere, so he reluctantly agreed.

Merlin hadn't realized his mind had wondered. When he heard Arthur yelling his name. "Merlin?! Are you even listening?" Arthur was eying Merlin intensely now. He had been going over the protection spell he had found in one of the books when Arthur woken up. He still wasn't sure how he would cast it without Arthur noticing that suddenly no weapon could touch him.  
"Hmm?..no iv been listing, of coarse I have!" Merlin replied rather unconvincingly.  
"_Oh really_? Then what did I just say"  
"Uhhh…you were talking abooout…armor?"  
"I swear Merlin, I have no idea why I still keep you around."  
"Because who else would put up with your giant ego and infinite pratness?" Merlin smiled.  
"Very funny Merlin" He said with heavy sarcasm "…_but as I was saying_… where did you go?"  
Merlin's smile disappeared. "What do you mean?" He acted oblivious even though he knew exactly to what Arthur was referring to. He still felt guilty every time he saw the man and he sure as hell didn't want to talk about the one night where he hadn't been there to help him. He had let him down, he knew that Arthur would have done the same thing if he had been in Merlin's position but this hadn't comforted him or eased the guilt in any way. He tried to block his thoughts but the memory forced its way back into Merlin's mind anyway…It had just started getting dark and the knights were all huddled around the campfire when Merlin began hearing cries of help. He looked around and when no one else reacted he rationalized that he must be the only one because of his magic, it must have improved his hearing somehow. If Merlin had just waited a second to realize that he could only do such things on command, that it was highly unlikely his magic had done anything, then maybe…just maybe he would have considered it was a trap. Then maybe Sir Kay wouldn't still be unconscious, maybe Arthur wouldn't have bandages covering his body, so maybe he wouldn't be feeling so damn terrible right now. But Merlin had not considered any of this; he just reacted on his instinct to help. By the time he had realized it was all just a ploy to lead Merlin away from the knights, he was too late.

Merlin had raced back to the campsite and found all of his friends knocked to the floor. Most of the knights only had scratches, it was clear they were not the targets. It was Arthur… he had been burned severely and had been stabbed. Merlin's heart had wrenched at the sight of his fallen price. Merlin had run to his side welling up with tears of rage and anguish. Merlin had immediately gone to work and used magic to stop the bleeding but had no idea how bad Arthur's head injury was when he fell or the burns. Arthur's eyes weakly fluttered open, he smiled as soon as he saw it was Merlin "Hi" he said weakly. "What-ugh-happened" Arthur now clearly confused how he ended up on the ground in terrible pain. "You were attacked." Merlin angrily said through his teeth. "Are you ok, did they hurt you?" of Arthur weakly sputtered without thinking, eyes wider now. Then after realizing how he sounded he tried to correct himself, "I-I mean is everyone ok?" trying to hide his principle concern. The rest were all fine except Sir Kay, who had jumped in front of Arthur and gotten his share burns before getting tossed aside like a rag doll by the mysterious sorcerer. But he just found himself saying, "There fine, now stop talking, save your energy", not wanting to stress Arthur any further. "Merlin?..." clearly not listening. "hmm? Merlin still preoccupied with cleaning Arthur's wounds and feeling too guilty to look him in the eyes. "…Thank you." He finished, grabbing his wrist forcing Merlin to look at him. He smiled slightly then closed his eyes slowly, feeling an unexpected wave of exhaustion wash in, and finally allowing himself to become limp. Merlin forced his eyes away. Why was he grateful?!, Merlin thought, I don't deserve it, I wasn't there for him. This just added to his anger and the horrible feeling quickly growing within him. Merlin had already been thinking of ways to punish the sorcerer when he had stumbled upon the scene but by the time he was done bandaging Arthur's wounds, Merlin was burning with pure rage.


End file.
